Uganda woos GSPC
Uganda’s high commissioner to India, Nimisha Madhvani, has invited GSPC to take a stake in the country’s exploration sector.
Madhvani, of South Asian origin herself, visited Gandhinagar on September 16 to meet GSPC managing director Tapan Ray and other officials. “We organised a presentation on our E&P activities,” says a GSPC source.
“The high commissioner was very impressed.” Madhvani said Uganda is looking for large capital investments in its oil production ‘phase,’ highlighting recent hydrocarbon discoveries in the Albertine Rift Valley region.
In the next six years, she predicted, Uganda will become a medium-sized oil and gas producer, rivalling countries like Mexico. She also pointed out trade between India and Uganda grew to $600m in 2010 from just $5.6m in 1984, and India’s ‘planned investments’ of $1.2bn in the East African nation are second only to the UK with $1.3bn.
GSPC has five overseas blocks in Egypt, three in Yemen, two in Australia, and one in Indonesia.